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Published: November 26th 2009
The last few days of our tour were spent on the Yangtze River on the Victoria Queen. We flew from Xi’an to Chongqing and were met by another guide and driver. We knew that we would have a few hours before boarding the boat and figured we would just hang around until boarding time. We were surprised that China Highlights had planned a tour of Chongqing for us. Our first stop was Emperor Yu’s Palace and then we went to see the Great Hall of the People which is now the Renmin Hotel. We had lunch in the basement of the hotel and then it was time to go to the boat.
We took a tram down to where the boat was docked and our guide found a guy with a pole over his shoulders to carry our bags for us. He carried all four bags at once, 200 pounds and he only charged 10 Yuan or about 1.50 each. Once on the boat we said goodbye to our guide and got settled into our rooms. We set sail around 9:00PM and sailed for a few hours then docked for the night.
We moved further down the
river the next day and then docked in Fengdu for a shore excursion to The City of Ghosts. Ming Shan is a mountain dedicated to the afterworld and its ruler, Tianzi. Think of any other temple in China but one depicting the gorier sides of hell. According to Chinese legend, the devil lives here. Spirits may go to heaven but evil goes to Fengdu. We managed to survive the evil mountain and the ski lift that we had to take up the mountain. Once again I think some of us may have enjoyed the ride more than others.
Back to the boat and then we traveled down the Yangtze River. The view was amazing for the entire journey since the cruise is through a mountainous region of China. There are villages built on both sides of the river along with farms. The river has been used for fishing and transportation for thousands of years but starting in 1994 a dam was constructed to tame the rapids and provide safety for people down the river in the flat regions. In all 1.3 million people had to be relocated for the rising water behind the dam. The guides, who were
all young, said that they liked their new homes because they are new and bigger. They also have better infrastructure systems for transportation and shopping. But they said that it is their parents and grandparents that are unhappy because they miss their homes.
The shore excursion on the second day was through the Lesser Three Gorges and Mini Three Gorges. We transferred to a smaller boat and then went up the Daning River which flows into the Yangtze River. The walls of the gorges rise right out of the water and the views are spectacular. We were able to see two coffins that were placed into caves on the sides of the mountains 2000 years ago. Loitering on the shores were monkeys (finally we get to see monkeys) and swimming along the shore were Mandarin Ducks. Just as we were getting settled we docked and got onto even smaller boats called Sampans. We went into a canal through the Mini Three Gorges. Along the way we saw a boat docked with people singing to the tourist. I guess the government pays them to sit there all day and sing. There was also a farmer on the mountain playing
music for us. Once back on the Victoria Queen, we spent the afternoon cruising down the river and seeing one amazing site after another.
The highlight of the evening was going through the locks on the Three Gorges Dam. There were five in total and took about 4 hours to pass through. We were able to watch from the top deck or from the deck on our rooms. We were so close to the wall of the lock that you could reach out and touch the wall. After we passed through the final lock we cruised just a little down the river and docked for the night.
The final morning was spent touring the Dam and then we were picked up by another guide in the town of Yichang. She gave us a tour of the city as we headed for the airport to head back to Shanghai.
What a trip. We will remember it forever!
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